The Yellows settled well with the wind behind them and set about their task of opening up a lead before half-time.

They were soon obliged by Man of the Match hat-trick hero Craig Lowe who within 15 minutes had the Yellows 2-0 up, expertly finishing off good moves involving Sam Holcroft and Ben Davies.

Birkdale, however, were not going to be blown away and came right back at the Yellows scoring a well taken goal following a break away.

This unsettled the Yellows who for the next five minutes were under pressure, however, this was soon relieved following a swift move from one end of the pitch to the other when James Smith latched onto a long ball from the back and neatly lobbed the Birkdale keeper.

The Yellows were spurred on to scoring their fourth goal, ending the half with a three goal advantage.

As expected, Birkdale used the wind to get back at the Yellows and eventually broke through to score their second.

The Yellows rallied after this, playing some good passing football and were able to add a further two goals, the last by David Foster who calmly chose his spot and slotted the ball into the back of the net.

The team should be pleased with their display in particular the defence and goalkeeper for the day, Carl Sutcliffe, who had to contend with a very good attacking Birkdale trio and the wind.

Redgate Greens U-12s2

Porto Logistics2

Redgate started the new Spring League against a team who finished joint top of the Winter League, and had beaten them 5-1 before Christmas.

Redgate also suffered a number of late player cry-offs leaving them with only 12 players available.

Despite this, Redgate started brightly taking the game to the opposition and forcing the Porto keeper into a string of good saves, while the Redgate keeper was a spectator for the first 20 minutes.

Finally the pressure told, and a good move down the left saw efforts from Jake Connolly and Lewis Shaw saved, before the ball fell to Andy Barlow in the box. He calmly placed a left foot shot into the net.

Just moments later a rare breakaway saw Porto equalise following a couple of defensive errors. It stayed 1-1 up to half-time.

The second half was more even with both sides battling in the middle of the pitch without creating too many chances.

A long ball then caught out the Redgate defence and Porto took the lead with a good finish. Redgate though continued to scrap for every ball.

Moments from the end, Man of the Match Jake Connolly ran past a couple of challenges, and as he went into the penalty area was brought down. He picked himself up and calmly placed the spot-kick past the excellent Porto keeper making it 2-2.

A fair result and a good performance by all the Redgate boys.

Ainsdale ‘A’4

Redgate U-13s1

ROVERS kicked off with a fierce wind at their backs and confident of turning over a team who had undeservedly snatched a point at Redgate earlier in the season with a last gasp goal.

But they quickly found themselves two goals down.

The shock of conceding so early unsettled Rovers, but with Eddie Hatton performing well they recovered and began to take the game to the home team.

They were unable to pull a goal back, however, and after the turn-round Ainsdale extended their lead.

After a couple of near misses Rovers finally reduced the arrears when Josh Giblin clipped the ball past the home keeper, but it was still far too comfortable for the home side who added one more before the close.